Image courtesy of Caroline Davis2010 (via Flickr) under CC BY 2.0
storage technology
Data storage in a drop of DNA
US researchers have come up with a novel method of storing the world’s ever-increasing amount of data, turning to a storage technology that humans would quite literally not be able to live without — DNA.
T
system, the 1895 French film Arrival of a train at La
multiplying their DNA sample through polymerase
Ciotat, a $50 Amazon gift card, a computer virus,
chain reaction (PCR) and that those copies, and
a Pioneer plaque and a 1948 study by information
even copies of their copies, could be recovered
theorist Claude Shannon. They compressed the files
error-free.
he concept is not an entirely new one,
into a master file, and then split the data into short
The capacity of DNA data storage is around
with researchers at the European Bioinformatics
strings of binary code made up of ones and zeros.
1.8 binary digits per nucleotide base, accounting
Institute (EMBL-EBI) demonstrating in 2012–13
Using their own customised version of an
for the biological constraints of the material as well
the storage of 739 KB of data in DNA. And
erasure-correcting algorithm called fountain
as the need to include redundant information for
according to the authors of the current study,
codes — originally designed for streaming video
reassembly. By applying their version of fountain
published in the journal Science, DNA has all the
on a smartphone — the researchers randomly
codes, called DNA Fountain, the researchers
characteristics to make it an ideal storage medium:
packaged the strings into so-called droplets, and
ensured the reading and writing process was as
• It is ultracompact — about one million times
mapped the ones and zeros in each droplet to the
efficient as possible. They succeeded in packing an
four nucleotide bases in DNA: A, G, C and T. The
average of 1.6 bits into each base nucleotide — at
• It comes in a liquid state, so it is not bound
algorithm deleted letter combinations known to
least 60% more data than previously published
by the physical limitations of other storage
create errors and added a barcode to each droplet
methods, and close to the 1.8-bit limit.
mediums.
to help reassemble the files later.
more so than regular digital media.
The downside of the study was that cost
• It can last for hundreds of thousands of years
The scientists generated a digital list of 72,000
remained a barrier: the researchers spent $7000
if kept in a cool, dry place, as demonstrated
DNA strands, each 200 bases long, and sent it in a
to synthesise the DNA they used to archive their
by the recent recovery of DNA from the bones
text file to DNA synthesis start-up Twist Bioscience,
2 MB of data and another $2000 to read it. The
of a 430,000-year-old human ancestor found
which specialises in turning digital data into
price of DNA synthesis may be reduced, however,
in a cave in Spain.
biological data. Two weeks later, they received a
if lower-quality molecules are produced and
“DNA won’t degrade over time like cassette
vial holding a speck of DNA molecules.
coding strategies like DNA Fountain are used to
tapes and CDs, and it won’t become obsolete —
To retrieve their files, the researchers used
if it does, we have bigger problems,” said study
sequencing technology to read the DNA strands,
Ultimately, the researchers showed that their
co-author Yaniv Erlich, from Columbia University
followed by software to translate the genetic
coding strategy packs a whopping 215 PB of data
and the New York Genome Center (NYGC).
fix molecular errors.
code back into binary. They recovered their files
on a single gram of DNA — 100 times more than
Erlich and his colleague Dina Zielinski, an
with no errors. They also demonstrated that a
the method published by EMBL-EBI. According
associate scientist at NYGC, chose six files to
virtually unlimited number of copies of the files
to Erlich, this makes it the highest density data-
encode into DNA: a full computer operating
could be created with their coding technique by
storage device ever created.
26 | LAB+LIFE SCIENTIST - Apr/May 2017
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